In the past, we’ve taken a close look at how the procurement maturity curve affects its focus. Two recent posts addressed issues concerning the evolving role of procurement savings, information and technology. In this two-part blog series, we’ll consider supply chain risk in the context of procurement’s maturity. We start by looking at supplier risk and the available methods to monitor and mitigate it. Then we’ll examine internal vs. external sources of risk.

The podcast series that’s all about minding your business in contract management and source to pay.

Determine recently announced their new Contract Management App for Salesforce. And while Salesforce is a big name in the B2B world, procurement professionals might understandably question what this means for teams outside of sales.

Part One of this two-part series on procurement maturity looked at how procurement is (and likely always will be at some level) linked to savings, even as our perspective on those savings changes. But the scope of procurement’s role has expanded. Technology and data are accelerating procurement along the value continuum and expanding our contributions beyond the bottom line. In Part Two, we look at how procurement professionals can leverage tools to increase our organizational effectiveness — and influence.

After multiple years of transformation (first procurement, then digital), most of us have accepted the idea that we work in a state of perpetual change and self-examination. What are my company’s current practices? What am I doing to advance myself or my team to the next level? How does that compare to what my competition is doing? Isn’t this striving for growth what “procurement maturity” is all about?

How much value is your business gaining from your contracts?

If an executive asked you what a given contract was worth, most of us would likely give an answer based on the estimated spend with that supplier as a result of projected volume, negotiated costs and term. While this would be an accurate answer, it limits the “value” of the contract to its transactional footprint.

We’ve all gotten so used to everything being “in the cloud” that many of us have stopped thinking about what it really means for enterprise business – and what it makes possible. I dug into the topic in a conversation with Tim Scott, a Business Consultant Manager at Determine, to follow up on some of the points raised in his recent webinar on sourcing and contract management with PayStream Advisors.

Procurement’s desire to be agile is as well-documented and frequently discussed as our interest in transformation. In both cases, however, we are at risk of falling into the ‘strategy trap’ – the lack of clarity, direction and actionability that accompany all things non-tactical.

Is Spend Under Management a “Has Been?”

In this, the third of our four-part blog series for the release of CPO Rising 2018: The Age of Intelligence, Kelly Barner of Buyers Meeting Point delves into the myriad facets of Procurement Performance in Chapter Three. There’s no debate that the importance and influence of procurement is on the rise across industries, but the question is, are procurement’s metrics – like spend under management – truly representative of those accomplishments?

Instead of “recycle, reuse, retread” let’s talk about a reboot.

Memorization is a frontage road: It runs parallel to the best parts of learning, never intersecting. It’s a detour around all the action, a way of knowing without learning, of answering without understanding.”

Placing customer interests at the center of your strategic plan is wise, but that doesn’t necessarily make it easy. Meeting customer expectations requires a full understanding their needs – and that is not possible unless you have one or more dedicated people who truly want to hear from customers and work with them to advance their objectives. As I found out in my conversation with Rose Lee of Determine, that’s precisely what a Chief Customer Officer does. And a whole lot more.

Our most read blogs

In the past, we’ve taken a close look at how the procurement maturity curve affects its focus. Two recent posts addressed issues concerning the evolving role of procurement savings, information and technology. In this two-part blog series, we’ll consider supply chain risk in the context of procurement’s maturity. We start by looking at supplier risk […]

The podcast series that’s all about minding your business in contract management and source to pay. Determine recently announced their new Contract Management App for Salesforce. And while Salesforce is a big name in the B2B world, procurement professionals might understandably question what this means for teams outside of sales.

Expanding the value of contracts by leveraging relationships on the Salesforce platform. As the leading authority on all things contract related, The International Association for Contract & Commercial Management (IACCM) has a truer picture of the current state of contracts at any given time than anyone. As such, IACCM looks at the impact of contracts […]

Integrating Determine contracts with Salesforce contacts to drive business opportunities. The Determine Contract Management App on the Salesforce Appexchange is yet another way to be more agile, proactive and responsive in the ever-competitive business world. The following screenshots show you how easy it is to request, manage and collaborate on contracts between our Salesforce app […]

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